Steemit Review – Can you Make Money with Steemit?

Everyday, hundreds of new opportunities to make money appear on the Internet. Some of them are incredible while others significantly lack merit. One such program that’s newer to the market is a site called Steemit. In this Steemit Review, I’m going to be looking at Steemit to determine if it’s a platform that’s worth your time.

What is Steemit?

Steemit is basically a social network that’s modeled after the popular online platform Reddit. Unlike Reddit however, Steemit pays you for the content you share. It does this by allowing users to upvote your posts with Steem, which is the system’s own unique cryptocurrency.

Can You Make Money with Steemit?

This is a complicated answer. The short answer to this question is yes, you can make money on the platform. However, there are a lot of nuances that come along with making money on Steemit, and there are a lot of alternatives that may suit your needs for making money online better than the Steemit platform.

The First Problem – System Design and Popularity

The first problem with making money on Steemit is the fact that you must be upvoted by other users on the platform to make any money. Because of this, many newcomers to the marketplace spend a substantial amount of time just trying to build an audience. Many users have stated that they have posted as many as 200 posts before making any money on just a few of them that were shared by users who have a large following. Unfortunately, this means that if you want to make money on the platform, you’re going to have to try like crazy to build an audience before you start to really earn any revenue.

While this is all good and well, if you’re going to build your own audience, you should be doing so on your own website rather than depending on another platform that could disappear tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the first time that sites allowing users to create content and earn revenue have disappeared overnight.

In fact, it’s happened several times in the past with sites such as Squidoo and many others. By having your own website, you can always be certain that your hard work will be there for years in the future.

The Second Problem – Getting Your Money

While it’s certainly possible to make money inside of Steemit, the problem arises when it comes to getting the money you’ve earned into your hands. First, half of the money that you earn from being upvoted is converted into Steem Power, which is a currency that is only usable on the site to upvote other people.

Second, the remaining money can be withdrawn as SBD or Steem Backed Dollars. This is the platform’s own block chain cryptocurrency. If you’re not familiar with cryptocurrencies, it’s okay. Basically, the way that it works is you must go to an exchange network and trade this cryptocurrency for real money that can be withdrawn to your bank account or PayPal.

So, in short, today that money may be worth $.50 and tomorrow it may be worth 1/10 of a penny. Sadly, the problem doesn’t stop there. On top of the currency not having any definitive guide to its value, you also must rely on being able to sell it for usable currency that can be deposited to your bank account. There are only a handful of exchange networks that will allow you to sell your SBD for the currency of your government. Now, if you can find a reputable exchange network and get your money, congratulations! Unfortunately, you’re probably only going to be able to get a little bit of money at a time from the network. This is because there’s only so much money guaranteed to be spent on your individual type of cryptocurrency.

Most networks have a reserve of a couple hundred dollars sitting there that can be used to purchase SBD. However, some, like the one pictured below, are simply not allowing the currency to be sold for cash at all.

So, while you may be able to make hundreds of dollars in SBD on Steemit, you may run into problems trying to get it turned into cash so that you can use the money you’ve made.

As you can imagine, this could be a very frustrating situation to see money sitting there and wanting to use it, but being unable to get it into a form of currency that you can spend on merchandise.
Yes, there are a couple of online merchants that allow you to spend your SBD for merchandise, but it’s mainly colored pencil artwork and other similar knickknacks. So, unless your landlords willing to accept Steem for rent, you’re going to run into problems if you’re planning on using the platform to pay your bills.

Pros and Cons of Steemit

Pros:

You Can Make Money – If you’re willing to invest a lot of time to build up and audience, you can earn a little bit of money on the platform

Lots of Users – Steemit does have a decent user base, especially since it hasn’t been around very long

Cons:

Difficult to Build an Audience – Unless you were able to get in when the platform first started, building an audience to upvote your content is going to be challenging.

You Don’t Control the Site – If Steemit disappears tomorrow, you lose the work that you’ve put into the platform.

Difficult to Get Money – Since you’re relying on exchanges to turn your Steem into $, if you’re able to make a small amount, it’s going to often be challenging to get that money into your bank account.

Do I Recommend Steemit?

After looking at how the entire system works, in its present state, I cannot recommend Steemit as a viable way to make money online.

Making money online by sharing your own thoughts and opinions is certainly an opportunity that you don’t want to pass up. When it comes to Steemit, there are a lot of better options available for you, such as starting your own website.

By doing this, you can ensure that your content is around for years to come, and that you are able to get the money that you have worked so hard to earn. If you’d like to learn more about how you can create an online business that will stand the test of time and pay you for your efforts, check out my top recommended resource.

Cons

Reader Interactions

Comments

Wow! Ok. Where do I start. The whole cryptocurrency thing is a deal breaker for me. It’s bad enough that it’s so difficult to make money here in the first place. Let alone, trying to find a site where you can actually convert it to real money and get it deposited into your account. Time you are not paid for, I might add.

The other thing that jumped out at me was the way you earn money here. You need to have a big following that shares your content. It sounds a bit like Bubblews and we all know what happened there. I was writing there for a while before they closed and made a few bucks but it was a lot of work.

I completely agree with your recommendation. Write your own content on your own site. You have complete control over it there. Very interesting article, Jay! Never heard of this site before but I’m steering clear.

I’m glad I found this as I was researching Steemit. It seems like easy money, but knowiing there are no free rides, I decided to look into it.
You really have to be careful these days how you go about trying to get ahead, and sadly, thise Steemit seems like a good way to put a lot of work in, and not get a lot of reward out.
I’m going to check out that Wealthy Affiliate site that you recommended, thanks!

Hi Jay!
for the first time hearing about money made are paid by cryptocurrency. There are a lot of negative opinion about cryptocurrency due to its volatile market and the lack of control by the governments.Also building an audience and getting paid after making more than 200 posts! Really difficult. Instead as per you, building our own website will be the right choice instead of wasting time on such sites, which may disappear in the future. Great post.
Thanks for letting me know.

Steemit sounds like a real gamble. If you are willing to put in the time to write 200 posts to gather a large following. And, if Steemit catches on as a viable cryptocurrency. And, if you can find an exchange to cash in 50% of your earnings. Then, you might get lucky and make some money.
I prefer to gamble in Las Vegas, thanks very much. It’s more fun, lots less work, but probably just as successful. The only downside is you lose money in Vegas. With Steemit you lose valuable time, which can be just as costly in the long run.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll put my time into writing 200 posts on my website that will definitely pay me back in real money.

I vaguely remember hearing about Steemit so this caught my eye. I didn’t know they have their own cryptocurrency or that it was like Reddit. I thought it was like Youtube actually. Its one of those new emerging platforms that no one is sure will make it big or not like Youtube back in 2005.

Hey Jay,
This was a great review on Steemit. Short and concise.
I’ve actually never heard of the concept before, and it is pretty interesting. But, like you said, I’d be pretty worried if all my content was hosted on someone else’s platform.

What really amazes me is that they pay out in crypto-currency. I’ve actually just read a few articles on cryptocurrency, and I’m realizing that it’s becoming undeniably prevalent as a trading commodity. There are even a few ecommerce websites I’ve seen with crypto as a method of payment. It may be a bandwagon worth jumping on. What do you think?

I feel there’s one point you may be missing here. To create a post on your website or blog requires care and attention. Posts need to be longer nowadays, with attention to SEO – and of course, you’ve got to stick to one topic area on your website, or you’re wasting your time.

Whereas on Steemit, you can punch out short posts about anything and everything, because you’re not trying to attract the search engines, you’re relying on the interaction between members. And I’m quite sure that, like Bubblews, most members are interacting to play the game, not because of the quality of your posts.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m tempted, because otherwise I have no chance to make money from any miscellaneous ideas I might come up with.

The fact that the payment is a cryptocurrency does not make it worse than, for example, Facebook. It may be that Steemit himself does not bring that money right now but who can say what a cryptocurrency is in a few years.

However, I see Steemit as a good publishing platform and getting those contacts that will help my online business. We all know that without contacts there is no business so why not try Steemit?